Tech
HHW Gaming: Decoy Games Shooter ‘Swimsanity” Will Feature Cross-Play When It Launches
Source: Michah Joel Photography / Decoy games Indie dev studio Decoy Games just made a big announcement regarding its forthcoming game Swimsanity. Over the weekend, during the Guerrilla Collective online games festival, Decoy Games had some huge news to announce. The game, which is billed as a “multiplayer underwater shooter,” will have cross-platform play on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Steam day one when it drops this summer. According to Decoy Games, the game will also have: Cross-Platform Voice Chat (Native Voice Chat on Nintendo Switch Supported) Cross-Platform Parties Cross-Platform Leaderboards Source: Decoy Games / Swimsanity That’s fantastic news for the indie title. We got a chance to get hands-on with the brainchild of Black brothers and Philadelphia natives Ahmed Abdulla...
Twitch Users Are Getting Takedown Notices En Masse for the First Time: Here’s Why
A flurry of copyright takedown notices hit Twitch users last week, causing a storm on social media. Here’s what’s really going on and what to watch for next. Over the last week, users on gaming-focused livestream platform Twitch received a sudden flurry of takedown notices for clips of old videos using unlicensed background music. The more than 2,500 notices — which the RIAA filed on behalf of rights holders for recordings including Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” and DNCE’s “Cake By The Ocean” — caused a storm on social media, with users complaining on Twitter they felt blindsided by the requests, some for clips dating as far back as 2017. Contrary to some users’ claims, Twitch’s Music Guidelines — which explicitly prohibit users from incorporating music into their streams wit...
HHW Gaming: ‘Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ Revealed To Be An Expansion With PS5 Enhancements
Source: Insomniac Games / PlayStation Sony’s PS5 console might have been the crown jewel of last night’s reveal event, but our favorite Spider-Man, Miles Morales, stole the show. Sony came out guns blazing or, in this case, web-shooters shooting opening up with the gameplay trailer for Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Fans were excited to see that hero from the film Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is going to be a playable character in his own adventure and that the game will be available when PS5 launches Holiday 2020. Source: Insomniac Games / PlayStation In the exceptional Marvel’s Spider-Man game, which swung on PS4 exclusively back in 2018, gamers got the chance to control Miles in a small part of the game. Unfortunately, he hasn’t become the hero we love yet, but he ...
HHW Gaming: The Lowdown On ‘Call of Duty: Modern Ware’s’ Massive Season 4 Update
Source: Activision / Call of Duty: Modern Warfare The season 4 update for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare/ Warzone arrived late last night. So what exactly is new? Well, for one, the most obvious is the addition of Captain Price as a new operator, but there is so much more. The battle also hits two new locations, Verdansk and the Armistice. Season 4 also introduces new ways for fans to play COD: Modern Warfare, which includes a new Multiplayer map, Ground War battlefield, and Gunfight map alongside more modes for both Multiplayer and Warzone. Call of Duty fans was hoping for some changes to the Warzone map. Instead, Infinity Ward is introducing three new “twists” called “Fire Sale,” “Supply Chopper,” and “Jailbreak” that can occur randomly and unsuspectingly altering player’s s...
HHW Gaming: Bungie Outlines The Future For ‘Destiny 2’ During Livestream Event
Source: Bungie / Destiny 2 E3 2020 is canceled, thanks in large part to COVID-19, but that didn’t stop Bungie from dropping a ton of Destiny 2 news on us. Today (Jun.9), during Bungie’s epic Destiny 2 livestream event, the game studio highlighted the next chapter for its looter- shooter, which will begin with the arrival of fall expansion, Beyond The Light. But that’s not all, the titles for season 11’s two major story expansions arriving 2021 and 2022 were also revealed and more big surprises. Source: Bungie / Destiny 2 Following an 8 minute and 46 second moment of silence for George Floyd (salute to Bungie) and a small doc showcasing how the team is managing working from home due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Once that was done, Mark Noseworthy and Luke Smith took over, and yes, they ...
NMPA Annual Meeting Celebrates Continued Publishing Growth, Warns of Pre-Pandemic Threats
The National Music Publishers’ Association announced its fifth consecutive year of increased revenues, while noting the industry’s high-stakes legal cases still ahead. The National Music Publishers’ Association’s annual meeting was held virtually Wednesday (June 10) due to COVID-19, where president and CEO David Israelite reminded membership that music publishing is still facing pre-pandemic threats to its business. Namely digital streaming services’ Copyright Royalty Board appeal and the Department of Justice’s review of ASCAP and BMI consent decree — which could also be an opportunity, depending on how the DOJ rules. “We are now 2.5% years into the new [rating] periods but we still don’t have certainty on our rates because Spotify and...
HHW Gaming: Infinity Ward Reveals When Season 4 Will Arrive For ‘Call of Duty:Modern Warfare’
Source: Bernard Smalls / Call of Duty Infinity Ward just dropped the release date for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare/ Warzone season 4, and it’s coming sooner than you think. Infinity Ward earlier in the month said it was “not the time” to release the highly-anticipated Season 4 update to Modern Warfare and Warzone due to the protests taking place all over the world for George Floyd. To show they were down for the cause they even added a loading screen letting gamers know Black Lives Matter much to the dismay of some players, we enjoyed those salty tears thank you very much. But the show must go on. Players have been waiting for Infinity Ward to drop the new release date and were pleasantly surprised to learn season 4 is dropping TONIGHT at 11pm PDT. As previously reported, COD fans can look...
Looking For Black-Owned Businesses To Support? Yelp Is Here To Help
Source: SOPA Images / Getty Looking for Black-owned businesses to spend your hard-earned dollars just got easier. Crowd-sourced local business review and social networking site Yelp announced that in the coming weeks, it will be releasing a new feature aimed to help highlight Black-owned businesses. In a blog post, Yelp co-founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman spoke on the new opt-in feature stating: “Over the coming weeks, we will launch a new free searchable attribute that will give businesses a way to identify themselves as Black-owned and make it easy for users to find and support Black-owned businesses on Yelp. This attribute will be opt-in only as the decision to self-identify as Black-owned should rest solely with the business.” Stoppleman reveals in the blog post, the company dec...
HHW Gaming: Sony’s PS5 Games Reveal Event Has A New Date, Here Is When You Can Watch It
Source: Sony / PlayStation 5 The gaming world pressed the pause button on many live stream events and online gaming out of respect to George Floyd and the protests taking place across the globe. Sony has announced it’s PS5 games reveal event is back on. Mark your calendars, June 11 is the new date where we will witness the future of gaming. Sony made the announcement of the event’s new date and time on the PlayStation blog today (Jun.8). In the post, Sony’s Senior Director SIE Content Communication, Sid Shuman, thanks gamers for their patience but explains the company “needed to step aside so key voices could be heard during this historic and important time.” Shuman also points out that the event will be pre-taped and will be broadcast at 1080p and 30 frames per second, a move that “eased ...
GOAT Establishes $1 million Fund To Support Social Justice Efforts Over Time
Source: GOAT / GOAT In the wake of George Floyd’s death and protests taking place across the nation and around the globe, companies are stepping up in the fight against racial and social injustice. Online sneaker marketplace GOAT, is the latest company to announce it will become an ally in that fight. Yesterday (Jun.6), it announced it will be “establishing a $1 million fund to support social justice efforts and plan to contribute to this fund over time.” For its first donation, GOAT announced it would be donating “$100,000 donation has been made to The Underground Museum in Los Angeles to support Black artists and to The Bail Project to support protesters demanding change.” The company announced its epic move on Instagram stating in the caption: “Over the last week, we’ve taken a step bac...
‘NBA 2K20,’ ‘GTA Online,’ & ‘Red Dead Redemption Online’ Press Pause For George Floyd
Source: 2K / NBA2k20 In a show of solidarity and respect, the video game world is pressing pause on online gaming for George Floyd. As the WORLD is still protesting against police brutality and racial injustice, the video game community is letting the world know it cares about the issues plaguing the Black community. Today as the nation finally mourns the death of George Floyd, Rockstar Games, 2K Games, and their parent company Take-Two Interactive announced on Thursday (Jun.4) that servers for the Grand Theft Auto Online, Red Dead Online, and NBA 2K20 will shutdown from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. That also is the same time George Floyd’s memorial service will be taking place in Minneapolis. In a tweet on its official Twitter account, Rockstar Games “Black Lives Matter. To hon...
HHW Gaming: Judge Tosses Out Maryland Players Jared Nickens & Jaylen Brantley ‘Fortnite’ Lawsuit
Source: The Washington Post / Getty Epic Games just scored a victory in one the lawsuits levied against its game Fortnite. The insanely-popular and highly addictive video game Fortnite came under fire when it was accused of jacking popular dances and selling them as “emotes” in the online shooter. Former Maryland men’s basketball players Jared Nickens and Jaylen Brantley saw U.S. District Judge Paul Grimm in Maryland toss their lawsuit against the game. ESPN reports that Grimm ruled on Friday (May.29) “that the Copyright Act preempts claims that Jared Nickens and Jaylen Brantley filed in February 2019 against Epic Games Inc., creator of the wildly popular online shooting game.” Initially, Nickens and Brantley claimed that Epic Games “misappropriated their identities” when the North Carolin...
